When a computer user is desirous of surfing the Internet to visit a webpage of a particular website, etc., the user uses typically a web browser. In fact, the main purpose of the web browser is to display websites. The user interfaces of several browsers have common interface features. These common interface features include, as an example,—an address line for the entry of a URL (Universal Resource Locator), navigation buttons, refresh and stop-load buttons, homepage buttons and bookmark menu (for enabling the user to create and organize bookmarks).
However, most well-known browsers, such as Google Chrome™, Firefox™ Opera™ and Yandex.Browser™ are typically have a quick-access field, which is also known as an “express panel”. In most web browsers, the quick-access field primarily contains shortcuts indicating the electronic address of the most frequently-visited websites. As a general rule, in typical web browsers, the quick-access field is allows the user to configure the quick-access field as to better correspond to the user's preferences. In other words, most web browsers execute the quick-access field as a self-configuring field featuring shortcuts with links to websites that are sorted and displayed by the frequency of the user's visits to these websites, and the user can also configure the quick-access field by manually selecting the websites that they wish to put in their quick-access field.
After installation, the web browser's initial quick-access field may be empty or pre-filled with links to the pre-defined websites that are offered to all new users, irrespective of a specific user's preferences. If the websites to be displayed in the quick-access field have been pre-defined in the browser's settings, each user would receive the identical initial quick-access field, which may turn out to be inconvenient or not relevant for the some or even the majority of users. For example, in the Opera browser, websites are fixed in the initial quick-access field, meaning that they will remain in the quick-access field, even if the user doesn't use them. An empty, or unfilled, quick-access field is also inconvenient, because it forces the user to fill it in on their own or wait until the quick-access field starts filling in automatically as the browser begins receiving data on the user's browsing history and interests.
For some web browsers, after the installation of the new web browser, the user can opt to configure the quick-access field in the web browser independently by adding links to websites manually. If the user has been using the web browser for some time, they can add URL links to websites to the quick-access panel from the list of visited websites, stored in the browser history, or from the bookmark library created in the process of web browser use. Upon the first installation of the web browser, the user can, of course, import their bookmark library, containing URL links to the stored websites from a previous web browser, into the newly-installed web browser. In this case, the user can augment the web browser's quick-access field with the same websites found in the imported bookmark library. In some web browsers, configuring the quick-access field with the use of imported bookmarks can be accomplished by the user manually, on the basis of the user personal preferences, or automatically.
It should be noted that some web browsers feature the option of configuring the quick-access field on the basis of user history.
Patent application US 2014/0108968, published on Apr. 17, 2014, discloses technology in which customized content is presented to user of a browser. A plurality of content items are determined and ranked for a user. The plurality of content items include user-specific content and general content. A tile is associated with each of the plurality of content items. The location of each tile is determined based on the rank of the content item associated with the tile. A layout is generated and transmitted together with the plurality of content items to the user browser for display.
Patent application US20140359424A1, published on Dec. 4, 2014, discloses a method for generating a web browser launch page is performed at a computer. The computer receives a user input to start a web browser application. In response to the user input, the computer identifies a set of favorite website addresses defined by the user and a set of website addresses visited by the user during a predefined time period and determines, among them, a set of favorite website addresses visited by the user during the predefined time period. For each favorite website address, the computer determines a timestamp of a most recent visit by the user, a number of visits by the user during the predefined time period, and a current score of the favorite website address and generates a new score for the favorite website address. Finally, the computer displays the set of favorite website addresses in a first window in an order consistent with their scores.